Pearl Bells
by moonlit notebook
Summary: Our favorite group of heroes have stumbled into a dangerous situation as they find an injured girl in the forest.


I don't own anything except my yet unnamed character and this story's plot.

"Speech" _"Thoughts"_

It was a dark night, a moonless night, an eerie night. InuYasha and his friends had settled down around a warm, bright fire. Although they were all tired after their long day of travel, something unclear was causing them to have trouble getting to sleep. Eventually, they all got to sleep after many hours of frustrating consciousness. After they had fallen asleep, the sound of a jingling bell becomes audible and steadily louder until the sound begins to wane and slow before it suddenly ceases, just before the sun peaks over the horizon.

Dawn came quickly for InuYasha and his companions. They all felt as tired as they had been when they had finally gotten to sleep. As they stretched and started to organize a search for breakfast, Kagome noticed that InuYasha suddenly seemed distracted. Curious, she walked over to where he was standing.

"Something wrong, InuYasha?" Kagome asked.

Not sure how to answer, InuYasha shrugged and answered, "I don't know… Something's bothering me. Something…unusual…"

Unsure of what to make of his rather vague answer, Kagome is unsatisfied and a bit unsettled.

"What do you want to do?" she asks him.

"I'd like to find out what it is… If whatever it is happens to be dangerous I'd rather take care of it now before it can become a problem." he answers, quietly assertive.

Kagome agreed with his logic, but they had told Kaede that they would be back for the Harvest Festival, which started tomorrow. They were still a little less than a day's walk from the village, so no detours could be taken unless they picked up the pace. A quicker pace would only make the groups' mood sour even more, which gave Kagome pause.

"We told Kaede that we'd be back in time for the Harvest Festival, though. Are you sure that you're not just tired and using it as an excuse to miss the festival?" she accused.

"Of course not!" he exclaimed, while thinking _"Darn it! How does she do that? No one has ever been able to read my mind like she can."_

Kagome didn't buy it, however, and innocently smiled at him menacingly. InuYasha knew exactly what was coming and gave her a pleading look, hoping that it would appease her. …It didn't.

"Sit! Bad dog, InuYasha! Sit!" Kagome commanded, and the beads around his neck obeyed.

After everyone had eaten breakfast and packed up their belongings, the group started once again a long day of traveling. An hour into the journey, InuYasha smells something that causes him to stop as soon as his brain registers the odor, blood. It was fresh blood that was human and demon, yet neither, at the same time.

The others stopped and waited for him to explain his sudden break with annoyed looks on their faces.

"This way. Now!" InuYasha said pointing to the forest they had been walking on the edge of; then running into it without waiting for the rest of the group, yelling back "Hurry!"

They all gave each other confused looks, and then ran into the forest after him. Trying to keep up with InuYasha's disappearing form, his companions were dodging tree branches and doing their best not to trip on any sticks or vines.

Up ahead, InuYasha had found the source of the stench, but was in such shock at what he saw, he could do nothing but stand there staring. When the others finally caught up, they were gasping for breath, though some more than others. As they came and saw what InuYasha was staring at, they imitated his actions, except Kagome who was just now joining them.

"InuYasha, I swear, you will not live to see tomorrow if this is a…*gasp*!" she starts to yell but when she sees what they are all staring at the words die on her lips.

Before them lies a girl in a small pool of blood. Her long, white hair has bloodied splotches in it, and hides most of her face. What little of her face that is visible is covered in cuts, blood, and dirt. Black canine or feline ears poke out of the top of her head like InuYasha's. The girl's clothing was a silver and royal blue kimono with a white sash and sleeves so long that only the tips of her clawed fingers, which also closely resembled InuYasha's but smaller and more feminine, showed. Her feet were bare, bruised, bloody, and dirty. She was small and very lean, looking to be a teenager.

"She's not human or demon; she's both." InuYasha says quietly.

"So she's a half-demon like you?" Kagome asked as a whisper.

InuYasha didn't answer her question for a minute as he analyzed the girl's smell more thoroughly, but then he answered "No: she's a bit more demon than she is human."

"Do you think she'll attack us if we try to help her?" Miroku inquired.

"She'll be too weak to put up much of a fight against us. If anything, I'd be concerned about whatever or whoever put her in this condition." InuYasha stated plainly.

Kagome was already digging the first aid kit out of her pack as the two males talked about the possibility of danger surrounding the poor girl. Kagome placed the first aid kit on top of her pack and turned to look at the girl the kit was intended for.

Sango gently turned the girl over so that they could see if she had any injuries on her front that needed to be tended to before any of the others.

The boys stopped arguing and looked at the now visible face of the injured girl.

"_She rivals Sango's beauty!" thought Miroku lustfully._

"_She sure is pretty, even with all her injuries. I wonder who her parents are and where they are. She doesn't look any older than me; she shouldn't be traveling alone. Although, InuYasha doesn't look very old either and he's over 50." Kagome thought with pity._

"_Wow! She's the most beautiful girl I've ever seen!" Shippo thought, as a blush colored his cheeks._

"_She's dressed well and she's pretty, but she's in such a horrible condition!" Sango thought._

"_Well she sure has been suffering for a while, days at least from the smell. Considering she's part human she was lucky to have been born without disfigurement like Jinenji was." InuYasha thought wrinkling his nose against the smell._

As Kagome brushed the girl's bangs back to reveal a cut that was bleeding just above her left brow a very distinctive and familiar mark caught her eye. When Kagome gasped everyone else noticed the mark too. A shockwave of surprise rippled through the whole group.

The pale indigo crescent that adorned the girl's forehead was the same shape as Sesshomaru's.

At this point the whole group was extremely curious as to this girl's origins.

Kagome and Sango continued to search for a wound that would be serious enough to allow the girl to lose so much blood while the boys continued to look at the crescent moon on her forehead, thinking.

Kagome and Sango couldn't find a wound through the girl's kimono as it wasn't at all damaged so to show any.

"I don't see any tears or rips in her kimono that would show where she is injured. Do you?" Sango asked Kagome.

Kagome shook her head 'no'.

"I suppose we will have to undress her to treat her then." Sango said with a stotic face.

"Miroku, Shippo, go back to the stream we passed a while back and bring back as much water as you can quickly carry. Go! Now!" Sango ordered curtly so they would get moving.

Both having been startled by Sango's tone took off at a run.

"Hey! I-" InuYasha started to say, but was interrupted by Sango sternly telling him "Go get some firewood and start a fire so we can boil the water when those two get back."

InuYasha frowned and looked like he was about to argue when Kagome gave him a begging look. He gave Sango a curt nod and ran off into the forest.

Sango then turned to Kagome and asked her "Do you have any extra clothes that you would be willing to part with? I only ask because I assume that you can get new clothes from your home through the well like you always do and we are in need of bandages."

Kagome smiled and nodded "Of course I don't mind. It's not like the rest of you have more than one spare set of clothing. If that!" she laughed.

Sango smiled and laughed for a second too.

Kagome got her cleanest set of clothing out of her bag and handed it to Sango who set it aside with the First Aid Kit. Both women then busied themselves with untying and removing the girl's kimono as gently as possible and laying her out on the spread garment.

As soon as they had removed the fabric covering her left side they immediately saw the wound that caused the massive bleeding: a cut ran from her neck to her hip, going from very shallow at her neck to very deep at her hip. It was by no means her only wound though. The girl was covered in bruises varying in size and severity all over, and her extremities where covered in cuts. As Sango examined her for internal injuries she found many broken bones: ribs, right leg, and left foot were the only ones that Sango could say for sure, but she was willing to bet that there were others.

It was then that Kagome tried to get a better look at the part of the cut on her neck to be sure that she wasn't going to bleed to death from a cut artery. As she tried to remove a string of small bells from around the girl's neck, Kagome realized that she could not remove it. There was no knot or clasp to undo and the necklace was too small to pull over her head, it was so tight there was only enough room to get a pinky finger underneath it. When she tried to cut it with a knife the blade jumped back as soon as it touched one of the coin-sized bells, as there was no room in-between the bells to get to the string without touching at least one of them. As soon as the blade jumped back the bell it had touched started to ring at a painful pitch. The girl opened her eyes wide and started to scream and writhe in pain as the shrill bell continued to sound. As the girl moved trying to escape the pain of the bell she aggravated all of her injuries and that only increased her pain and thus her screaming.

"Hold still you're only hurting yourself more!" Sango tried to yell over the bell.

Not a second later, the bell finally went silent after what felt like had been an hour, but it had only been a few seconds. The girl went limp as soon as the bell stopped. Her breathing was labored and uneven. Her eyes were half-lidded and looked unfocused and distant.

Kagome was horrified, "I'm so sorry! I needed to remove it so I could treat the cut on your neck! I had no idea!" she apologized.

"It's alright, my lady. I appreciate the kindness you show me." the girl said in a breathless voice.

She had curled into a ball with her back to Kagome and her left side exposed to the air.

Kagome heard what the girl had said, and gave Sango an ashamed glance.

I will not continue this story until I get a solid review. Not a "this is good, so please continue", I want to know what about it you liked and what about it you didn't like.

Thank-you for reading it and I hope you didn't find it a total waste of your time.


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